Local treatment with a substance such as a drug at a particular internal site of a patient, as opposed to systemic treatment, has become increasingly important.
Such local access is useful not only for substance delivery but for other treatments, such as myocardial revascularization, as well. Myocardial revascularization forms “holes” in ischemic ventricular tissue to increase blood flow to the treated area.
For example, to achieve local treatment of tissue, physicians can use catheters and occlusion devices. Specifically, cardiovascular guide catheters are generally percutaneous devices that the physician advances through a vasculature of a patient to a treatment region and are uses to guide other catheters or devices to the region. Delivery catheters generally deliver a treatment agent to a treatment region in a patient's vasculature and typically are inserted through another catheter (e.g., a guide catheter). Additionally, occlusion devices, such as balloons, may connect to a delivery catheter to occlude a treatment region in the vasculature. Guidewires are generally devices that guide through the vasculature to a treatment region and typically can be inserted through another catheter (e.g., an introducer).